Fallen Angels
by Tokyo Kitty
Summary: After the incident with Meteor, Cloud lives alone in Gongaga. Will things change as his memories continue to haunt him and unexpected guests come to see him? CxS, CxV, CxZ, poss. CxZxS Shounen-ai, Better Summary Inside
1. It's a Long Way Down

Fallen Angels, It's a Long Way Down

A Tokyo Kitty Production

Disclaimer: I don't own it...wish I did but nope...

Summary: The great cataclysm is now over and Cloud sits in the turning point of his life. Should he give up all that he once remembers and move on? Or let his memories continue to rule his life and govern his next move? All is influenced by the forces that will cross as unexpected guests arrive and his memories haunt him with the grief of the past. YAOI ZackXCloud, SephXCloud, CloudXVincent and possible SephXZackXCloud

A/N: Hello and welcome to my newest fic...if it ever reaches any actual site. This will be the first fic that I'm not faking a plot by pulling random smut scenes out of my butt and throwing it in a word document. cough battles lost cough cough anyway, I would also like to rant about the fact that took off my pride and joy Final Fantasy VII for Dummies. If you can think of a place I could put it that'd be nice since it's not dirty enough to be on and I have no clue where else to put it. If you are reading this, this is the censored version of this fic. If you would like to read it in it's original Yaoi, NC-17 form go look me up at Thank you now I shall begin this epic fic...prepare for angst to come spilling out of peoples ears...

Every day was the same. The same cold night, the same warm day. The same trees and tall grass overgrowing the paths of the old town. The same people, houses, the same view from the rooftop of his house. Nothing ever changed nowadays. That was just how he liked it.

It was now two years since Meteor Crisis and now Cloud sat by himself on the roof of his small thatched house staring off into the setting sun. You could see the decimated Mako Reactor off in the distance, the sun setting behind it. This was Gongaga, now a near ghost town from what it used to be ever since the reactor had exploded. After everything in the Crater, Cloud had retreated to the ancient town in hopes of cutting himself off from the group he had spent a whole year with in the pursuit of Sephiroth and the planned downfall of Shinra. Now Midgar lay in ruins and he had killed Sephiroth with his own hands.

'Sephiroth...' Cloud thought the sun now disappearing behind the piles of twisted metal, the clouds slowly turning purple. After Meteor, Cloud left the group in hopes of living the rest of his life in solitude, alone. It had only taken Tifa only about a month to once again find him. It was bound to have happened, the woman loved him after all.

After staying only a few weeks Tifa had sensed his uneasiness around her and had departed saying she was going back to Midgar to help rebuild and set up a new bar. She showed up from time to time now, but her visits were slowly becoming farther apart.

Whenever she came she always brought news of the others. Cid had gone back to Rocket Town and was now flying the sky in the Highwind with new cargo routes, occasionally working on a new spaceship with the profit he made. Red XIII had returned to Cosmo Canyon to take up his father's duty of protecting the town, even now after the war. Barret had gone to Corel, finally reunited with Marlene, and he was now helping to rebuild the town into what it had been when Dyne was still around. As for Yuffie, Cloud laughed, the images of the young thief filling his mind. She had gone back to her hometown in Wutai with pockets full of mastered Materia in hopes of selling them to help Wutai rebuild itself into the respectable town it had once been.

All was slowly returning to the way it should have been. Except...there was no news of Vincent. The dark man had disappeared almost as mysteriously as Cloud had right after Holy had dispersed. Cloud had thought many times of seeking out the dark haired man but figured that, like himself, Vincent had sought the solitude and silence of being alone.

Cloud looked at the black sky now speckled with tiny stars, the twilight now entirely gone. The stars twinkling high in the sky always reminded him of that night in the Crater.

FLASHBACK: NIGHT OF THE FINAL CONFRONTATION

Rocks...rocks fell everywhere into the large hole in the Planet's center. Falling...falling deep into the Lifestream churning beneath him. 'Will I fall too?' He thought gaping at the glowing green flowing toward the sky.

"Cloud!" Tifa yelled from the top of a cliff. She stretched out a hand to the dazed man standing, sword limply in hand, gazing at the pit of Mako green. "We have to leave, Cloud!" She called out again.

Cloud turned looking at the woman with bright blue eyes filled with sadness and grief. He slowly nodded grabbing Tifa's hand and helping to pull himself out of the slowly breaking Crater.

'It is over...but is that what I really want?' Cloud questioned as he sat on the loading deck of the Highwind watching Holy cure the damage caused by the destruction of Meteor. Green beams of light crawled across the earth like slow bolts of lighting. They moved toward Midgar to aid in the end of Meteor.

'Green...just like his eyes...' Cloud's eyes reflected the green lights into his own blue eyes, turning his eyes an aquamarine. Sephiroth had green eyes. At least he used to. Cloud doubted it was over. So many times had people said Sephiroth was dead only for him to come back and smite all those who had doubted him. But then, there was always the chance that he truly was...

'No...I don't want it to be...none of this should of ever happened...because, I-'

"Cloud? Are you alright?" Tifa said interrupting the blonde's thoughts. She stood beside him, her arms resting on the metal railing.

"Huh? Oh, yeah...I guess..." Cloud answered quietly. It wasn't like him to be so quiet when he spoke. He had always been a man of few words, but very rarely when he did speak did he not know what to say. He couldn't tell Tifa how he really felt...She'd never accept it.

"What're you thinking about?" She asked smiling at her childhood friend.

"Oh, just things...Our journey is finally over I guess and well...I don't know what to do now..." Cloud said trailing off at the end. It wasn't exactly what he'd been thinking. But close enough. Maybe she would leave him alone now and he could go back to being nostalgic.

"Okay..." She said, sensing he wasn't going to say anymore. "You should go to bed soon. We're going to make plans in the morning."

END FLASHBACK

That had been a long day. Cloud remembered pulling off his normal day clothes and changing into a pair of light sweatpants. Strangely, when they had gotten back to the Highwind Vincent was gone. Just gone. He'd seemed to have been with them the whole time. But, as soon as they had all piled into the control room and looked around, Vincent wasn't with them. The strange turn of events hadn't surprised Cloud but everyone else thought that he had somehow gotten separated from them by the accident.

Oh well, wherever the dark haired man had gone he'd made himself pretty scarce. No one had found him to date and they had given up a while ago thinking that perhaps...it meant that things should be left the way they were.

"I guess that's just how things have been lately." Cloud said to the wall. He spoke to the thing almost constantly whenever he lay down to go to sleep. He didn't talk much to anyone in town. Most of them didn't know him personally and the only people he felt any connection to were Zack's parents who lived in the house next door.

'Destiny and fate were never something we should've messed with in the first place' Cloud thought falling asleep.

A/N: Alright I know this chapter wasn't very long I just had to get it out of the way. Ya know, to set everything up. I'm being original and placing it in Gongaga so bear with me, I'll explain why he's there in the next chapter. Prepare for lots of flashback because you know how nostalgic Cloud can be... Next chapter...prepare for MEGA FLASHBACK and the and shounen-ai scene. You don't like guys kissing? Sorry can only censor so far before it loses the story...This is after all a love story...Deal with it. Please Review! Bye ."


	2. Nostalgia of Heaven

Fallen Angels, Nostalgia of Heaven

By: Tokyo Kitty

Disclaimer: I don't own it! hides nor am I a pedophile! Don't sue me for thinking Cloud and Zack go well together!

A/N: Hello again! thanks to my TWO reviews I will continue to write this fic. I'd write it anyway but I find the statistic 1 review out of 132 times it's been read rather staggering. But, enough about that. This chapter will mostly be a flashback so kick up a chair as I give my theories of the past. Cloud is 16, I think that Zack would be 19 and that would put Sephiroth at 21. Live with the ages, because I'm not changing them. Just know that is my idea and I'm going with it.

FLASHBACK: SHINRA 8 YEARS AGO ( if you were listening you would know the two years were added from the first chapter)

"Oh come on, Cloud, he's not gonna bite!" Zack said nudging his small lover in the shoulder, slightly knocking him off the couch. He laughed as Cloud started visibly shaking, stuttering over his words.

"But, but..." Cloud looked up at Zack righting himself on the couch again. "What if he doesn't like me..." Their topic was as always the General. Sure Cloud looked up to him, hell everyone did, but there was more...Even now, with Zack as his boyfriend, he still felt attracted to Sephiroth. When Zack had found out about Cloud and his "little" obsession, he had been absolutely relentless with his teasing.

"Just talk with him. He's a nice guy when you get to know him." Zack said with a cheesy smile. Cloud was silent. Zack leaned down throwing an arm over Cloud's shoulder pulling him close. He leaned down, "Are you worried about kissing him or something? You could always practice on me...I'm willing." He whispered in Cloud's ear.

Cloud turned bright crimson, his eyes wide at Zack's suggestion. "You know I don't bite...hard..." Zack smirked pushing him down on the couch straddling his waist.

"Za-Zack..." Cloud groaned, Zack licked the lobe of Clouds ear, switching between kissing and biting lightly. "I have classes in an hour..."

"Consider yourself excused from those classes...you have other 'practice' to do..." Zack said stealing Cloud's lips in a hungry kiss.

END FLASHBACK

"Huh?" Cloud sat straight up in bed the last pieces of the memory slipping away from him. 'Why did I remember that?' Cloud questioned himself. 'Eight years ago...Why now do I remember such distant things?'

'It is why you came back here after all...' his mind argued with him. It was a fact though. He had come to Gongaga after everything to get away from everyone in a place he figured no one would expect him to go...and...Zack...

His hometown, the broken town of Gongaga. Its existence had been nearly wiped out by the Shinra reactor that had blown up. That had been at least a decade ago. Now the townsfolk had gathered, sort of, and rebuilt some of it.

'I bet it didn't even look like this when Zack lived here...' Cloud reflected solemnly. Zack had told him when they were together that he had joined Shinra to get money for his parents back in Gongaga trying to rebuild it.

'I'll take you there someday...so you can see where I grew up...it'll be just the two of us.' Zack's words floated back to him as if they too were part of that illusive dream. Cloud looked out his window at the oncoming morning.

He got up throwing on his usual clothes then walked out into the dawn. The town had a small population to begin with, but in the morning this early there was no one in the dirt streets. He walked down the path, the light, cool morning wind nipping at his bare arms. Every morning was the same...he'd walk down to the reactor, sit there until around noon, then go back home and eat lunch then do whatever chores he had still to do for the rest of the day. Always the same schedule. Like he'd said, 'nothing ever changes'.

'The reactor...' He thought staring up at the looming pieces of broken and twisted metal. His mind drifted...like a log upon a fast stream...drifting into the sorrow of the past...

FLASHBACK: 8 YEARS AGO, NIBELHEIM

"Sephiroth!" Cloud yelled squinting through the flames of his beloved home town. Off in the distance was Sephiroth standing in the flames, staring out at Cloud. He turned holding his hand to his eyes to see through the flying ashes.. "Sephiroth!" he called again evading a falling rafter of wood. He ran after the man and was stopped by the huge wall of fire. 'What have you done Sephiroth?' He covered himself running through the flames to find himself once again alone.

'Mt. Nibel...The reactor...' A voice called to him. Almost as if it was inside his head...But that couldn't be...could it?

Cloud nodded to himself starting up the path to the reactor on Mt. Nibel.

He ran into the reactor heading up the steps, coming to a dead stop at Tifa's still body lying on the bottom step to the Jenova chamber.

"Tifa!" Cloud cried picking up the young woman.

"...You came. ...You kept your promise. So you really did come when I was in trouble!" Tifa whispered, her eyes open only a tiny bit, her body motionless in his arms.

"Sorry... I didn't get there... fast enough..." Cloud whispered back to the brunette. His tears lightly falling on his childhood friend's shirt.

"It's all right... Cloud." She rasped, smiling at him. Her eyes closed, her body laying in Cloud's arms like a doll.

Cloud let out one final tear before setting her down to the side of the stairs. He turned around glaring at the open door at the top of the stairs. 'Sephiroth...what have you done...'

"Sephiroth!" Cloud screamed in a blind rage as he came running through the door. Zack lay on the ground, his buster blade sword laying on the opposite side of the chamber. He grabbed Zack's sword, running up the stairs with it, facing Sephiroth preparing for a fight.

"You...What are you doing here?" Sephiroth said his voice monotone. He turned away from the controls to stare directly into Cloud's bright blue eyes with his own equally bright green eyes.

"You aren't like yourself, Sephiroth! What has happened to you? My Mom... Tifa... my town... give it back... I had so much respect for you... I admired you... I..." Cloud trailed off holding back the tears of anger and distress.

"Just like you," Sephiroth said smirking. "And why should you care?"

"Cloud... kill Sephiroth..." Zack called out in a raspy voice from across the chamber.

Everything was so surreal. Sephiroth's cold, mocking attitude, Zack laying hurt on the floor, Tifa probably dead and Cloud...now rushing towards Sephiroth in unbridled anger.

"SEPHIROTH!" Cloud yelled charging at him. He felt the force of Sephiroth's blade penetrate his arm. Cloud stumbled back.

Sephiroth smirked. "Don't... push... your luck... kid." He turned back around to mess with the controls to the huge door.

"Seph...i...roth..." Cloud mumbled out, his vision starting to blur. He pulled the blade out of his arm. "NYAHH!" He threw it at the man who turned around just in time to get the blade straight through his chest.

"It...It can't be!" He cried out falling back off the ledge he was standing on into the pit of pure Mako. Cloud stood there, panting for a minute before falling backwards down the stairs.

'So this...is death...' he thought falling into the deep oblivion of unconsciousness

END FLASHBACK

'Sephiroth...' Cloud thought a tear falling to the dirt then disappearing. That had been the first time he had killed him. Every time he had been forced to kill Sephiroth he'd always come back...somehow.

Cloud had awoken after everything that happened in the reactor a few days later on the back of a truck crossing the desert with Zack. He had lived. For just like Sephiroth and all others touched by Mako and Jenova cells, he couldn't die easily. No one could, even if it was their will to die.

Cloud was convinced that everything that had happened back then, and Meteor Crisis, hadn't really been Sephiroth. 'No...it was all Jenova's doing...Hojo and his experiments...Sephiroth was overthrown by the power of what had been infused into him since birth.

'But had it been that way?' Cloud thought. He'd never asked the General where he got the strange scars all over his body. Or why no one knew exactly how old or how long Sephiroth had been in SOLDIER. It had always seemed strange to Cloud. 'But who would know that kind of information anymore?' Cloud thought.

"Vincent..." It cane to him in a flash. Of course! The man had seen Sephiroth as a child. He'd known Sephiroth's mother. "I must speak with him...there's only one place he'd go.." Cloud knew where Vincent would hide. The Shinra mansion...The only place he had known for decades. Yes, that's where Vincent would go.

Cloud hurried home packing a small sack of clothes and food. It'd only take about a day to get to Nibelheim if he left right now and rode until nightfall. He grabbed Zack's old Buster Blade that sat by the wall swinging it around once. It had been a while since he'd fought. But he trusted the years he'd spent fighting. No matter how long ago they were.

He headed out to the shed in the back of his house, strapping his bag on the back of his gold Chocobo, sitting down and grabbing the reigns.

"Arashi, go." He whispered to the Chocobo, who shot out of the stable like a bat out of hell. They ran out of the town, the townspeople turning their heads to look as they ran by. It was still morning, probably nine or ten by now. With luck, they'd be there by about ten at night. With the sun to guide them Cloud rode out of the forest into the main land riding northwest toward the tall mountains in the far off distance.

A/N: That's all for this chapter. I got the plot moving! Yay! Oh and the title of this fic is the name of a play...I'm not stealing it! That should've been in my disclaimer. For those on reading this, I can write sex scenes, just read Battles Lost, I just don't want to right now. Don't worry there'll be lots of flashbacks. Because I think it's fun making Cloud really nostalgic. Don't know what nostalgic means? look it up! Arashi is what I named my gold Chocobo. It means tempest. Don't know what that means? It means a strong storm. There I was nice and gave you a definition. Until next time, farewell...where ever you are...


	3. False Truths

Fallen Angels, False Truths

By: Tokyo Kitty

Disclaimer: Wheee not mine!

A/N: Ha ha! Try to understand THAT paradox! Is it true? Is it false? Who knows? That's why it's a paradox. Anyway, this chapter will be the first one with dialogue written in the present day. Wow, I've been writing too many flashbacks...oh well I like them...anyway yay! Enter Vincent, ex-turk.

The stars were already in the sky when Cloud pulled the weary Chocobo into the deserted town that was once Nibelheim. He left the Chocobo sitting by the gate, not needing to tie it up since he'd raised it himself and it knew no other master. "Vincent?" he called through the darkness of the large mansion. Everything was still in the same disarray that it had always been in. Was Vincent downstairs in the basement? It didn't look like he lived up here anyway. The amount of dust on everything clearly showed that.

"Vincent?" He called down the dark stone hallway underneath the mansion that lead to Vincent's chamber. No answer greeted Cloud's ears as he continued cautiously down the hallway to the old wooden door that had once imprisoned the dark haired man. Cloud opened the door silently sitting down on one of the many closed coffins. "Vincent, I know you're in here. I have a few questions for you."

Just like it had been when they first met, the lid to Vincent's coffin lifted of its own accord and Vincent sat up. "Cloud? What are you doing here?" The ex-turk inquired staring at Cloud with his red eyes that were the color of pure blood spilled on snow.

"I wanted to ask you something about your past. Actually it's more of Sephiroth's past. What do you know of it?" Cloud asked resting his elbows on his legs and his hands under his chin.

Vincent was silent for a moment. He had never told anyone the true reasons why he was here. Sure it was to atone for Lucrecia's death and the horrors done to Sephiroth. But there was more, more that he had never told anyone. Perhaps, if he told Cloud it would lift some of the burden from his own shoulders. Vincent let out a sigh, "It was nearly thirty years ago... I met Lucrecia after being in the Turks for a couple years. I was working as a bodyguard for her as she traveled with her husband, Simon Hojo, in his studies."

"She was a nice woman. Kind, caring, her eyes reflecting pools of the empathy that she had for all living things. The exact opposite of Hojo. I fell in love with her kind charm. Her husband was always away, you'd think he didn't even know he had a wife. I worried for her, told her she should leave him. But no, she stuck by the person she had married."

"You loved her? Even though it was against turk protocol to have any emotions for your client?" Cloud said unexpectedly. Vincent's story intrigued him. He wanted to hear the rest of it.

"Worse," Vincent said, hanging his head in shame, "About a year later I asked her to come with me, to join me instead of waiting for a man that would never love her more than science."

FLASHBACK: 31 YEARS AGO, NIBELHEIM 

"Mr. Valentine I can't. I pledged myself to Simon, I can't be with you." She said her voice smooth yet so filled with emotion. It didn't show, but she was fighting back the tears that threatened to fall.

"Lucrecia, Professor Hojo is using you for his experiments. He and Professor Gast are planning something...I hear their whispers I don't want them to do anything to you...because...because I-...I love you." It was the first time he'd actually said it to her face. She stood there, staring back at him with her large green eyes.

"Mr. Valentine, I'm sorry," she said her eyes filled with pain. "I-I can't...leave." The tears fell freely now, flowing down her porcelain white skin.

Vincent stepped forward wiping the tear from her eye. "Please, call me Vincent." He said with a soft smile. Not waiting for her to answer, he kissed her. He surprised himself with the action breaking away quickly to stare back into her eyes.

"V-Vincent..." Lucrecia stared up into the turk's eyes. Trusting, loving...and above all, loyal.. "Oh Vincent!" She wailed throwing herself on him, hugging him tightly, crying into his shoulder.

He patted her on the back knowing that what he had now, wouldn't last forever.

END FLASHBACK 

"I don't entirely know why she had such a change of heart but..." Vincent trailed off. "She gave herself to me, for just that one night. She bore my illegitimate child. The person you know today as Sephiroth."

"What? You mean-

"Yes, Cloud, I am Sephiroth's true father." Vincent said, the remorse practically coming out of his ears.

"But, what about what Hojo said?" Cloud asked, confused by this new information.

"It was all lies. After the first few months of Lucrecia's pregnancy it became impossible to hide it anymore. When Simon Hojo found out he fired me from my position as a bodyguard for his wife and threatened to tell everyone about the scandal. She struck a deal with Hojo. He had been planning to do new research with something he called 'the Jenova Project' but, he didn't have any test subjects. Lucrecia gave her child, my son, to science to keep the scandal quiet."

Cloud sat quietly. Never would he have guessed that since birth had Sephiroth been tested on. From what Vincent had revealed, everything was beginning to make sense.

"Lucrecia died in child birth that same year. She never even got to hold her own son. With those same bright green eyes..." Vincent closed his eyes as if to suppress some dark emotion that had scarred him all his life.

"But what about you? How did you get here?"

"Me? As soon as Hojo had set up a team to begin work on 'the Jenova Project' he turned on me and did...things to my body. I bear the same marks as anyone who was involved in 'the Jenova Project'. After that he locked me in this room." He said pushing off the cloak and unbuttoning his shirt. "This is Hojo's work...this arm, these scars, my transformations, and this room...all of it steeped in the blood and sadness of science. The cold banality of experimentation." Vincent's chest was covered in intricately lined scars crossing everywhere on his body. Some were smaller than a strand of hair, others looked like they were made by a bear claw . "But you've seen such marks before, haven't you, Cloud?" Vincent asked glancing at Cloud's blank expression.

"Ye...yes, on Sephiroth. They were all over his legs and arms too." Cloud said his voice monotone as he recalled the similar marks that had covered Sephiroth's body.

"How would you know that? I doubt Sephiroth took off his shirt often knowing how many admirers he had when he was in SOLDIER, not to mention the scars aren't something he would've been proud of."

"Oh, um well..." Cloud blanked turning slightly flushed. Vincent gave him a knowing nod fully aware of how Cloud had known. "I should go...it's a long way back and I need to get back to Gongaga before daybreak..." Cloud said turning for the door.

He felt someone grab at his arm. "It's dangerous to travel at night alone. Stay for the night. I guess I could break the rules for once and go upstairs and sleep with you in a bed." Vincent gave him a genuine smile, something Cloud had never seen the man do before.

'There's something different about him...he seems lighter, less weighed down. He's right though...I should stay'. Cloud nodded. "Alright," Cloud said smiling back at the raven haired man.

The two headed out of the stone prison going up the stairs into the room right next to the hidden staircase. After a few minutes of patting dust out of the bedding Cloud announced that he had to go put his Chocobo away and get his bag. Vincent nodded watching Cloud leave. He sighed taking off his cloak and hanging it on a bed post. He had been right. Telling Cloud had helped to lighten his load of troubles. Of course it didn't make a large difference. He still felt responsible for everything and wasn't going to leave the mansion. But it was nice to have a guest after two years of cutting himself off from humans.

He lay down on the old bed, it giving under his weight. He pulled the blanket over his body falling asleep after so much talking and the energy he'd exerted to remember the past. 

Cloud came up into the room a few minutes later throwing the bag on the floor. He looked over at Vincent's sleeping form, wrapped up in the blankets, his face had a calm, placid look to it. 'Gods, he looks just like Seph when he's sleeping,' Cloud thought. Vincent's hair fell in nearly the same pattern that Sephiroth's did without the bandana. Cloud reached over to brush the hair out of his face, but stopped half way. 'What am I doing? No matter how much he looks like Sephiroth he isn't him. Stop it Cloud, just let go...' His mind chastised him. It was true. Vincent wasn't Sephiroth but still, Cloud felt attached to him, attracted to him...

Before Cloud knew what he was doing he had leaned over Vincent and kissed the sleeping man. Vincent's eyes fluttered open, staring up at Cloud in confusion.

"Cloud?" Vincent whispered, their faces only a few centimeters apart. He could feel Cloud's breath on his face.

'WHY did I do that?' Cloud thought, the same stunned look on his face that was on Vincent's. 'He looks so beautiful like this though...'

"One night, Vincent, that's all I want." Cloud said crawling on top of the startled man. He held Vincent's shoulders effectively pinning him below him.

"Cloud...I-" Vincent didn't get to finish his sentence as Cloud's lips connected with his own again, this time with more passion.

"Please Vincent," Cloud said quietly, staring into Vincent's red eyes with his own piercing blue eyes.

CENSORED BY TOKYO KITTTY PRODUCTIONS

"Good night, Vincent." Cloud said curling up under the blankets. He fell asleep a few moments later, but it was too soon to hear Vincent whisper softly: "Good night".

A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out...my friend said that I should add a scene here when she was editing it and I just had to then...Plus I like how this came out...I think I can do stuff with this now...I'm starting to get the beginning of a plot line and hopefully chapter four will be out soon. I'll see you then! Farewell!


	4. Dissipating Light

Fallen Angels, Dissipating Light

A Tokyo Kitty Production

Disclaimer: looks around not mine...shoo all you evil lawyers.

A/N: Welcome to chapter 4 everyone. I'm proud of where this has come and I hope to be proud of where it's going...but you never know...Anyway, it's the moment you've all been waiting for! Fallen Angels gains a plot! Whoohoo! You have no idea how difficult it is for me to create cohesive plots...I still don't like this one much...Oh well, give me your opinion by reviewing. It's always nice to feed the writer.

Cloud woke the next morning early as usual. It was just ingrained into him, he could never wake up any later. But, his body had adjusted to the lack of sleep that he got on a daily basis.

He looked over at Vincent's sleeping frame, his long raven hair hiding his face. A placid look graced his face, the emotion of sleep. Cloud brushed the hair lovingly from Vincent's face. It fell back into place, Vincent stirred slightly, but did not wake.

'What possessed me to do what I did last night?' Cloud asked himself. 'He's Sephiroth's father, not Sephiroth himself.' Cloud pulled on his normal attire and walked out of the room then down the old stairs into the main room.

'He went along with it. It's not your fault," his conscience added. Cloud's conscience had always been a little out of whack.

'That's not a good reason... Why can't I ever do anything right? Everything I do just makes more problems.' Cloud walked out of the mansion into the deserted streets.

He didn't head for the stables though, instead he walked up the path leading to Mt. Nibel. The road was dangerous, but a good place to sit because it was always quiet. It reminded him of when he had been a child and they had dared each other to walk as far as they would on the path. He climbed the mountains heading toward Mt. Nibel far in the distance. As he trekked along the rugged terrain he heard something near him. He pulled out the Buster Blade, eyes darting around to trace the origin of the sound.

'Moving feet...that isn't a monster...the only thing around here is dragons...' Cloud thought focusing to the right behind some rocks where he had identified the sound to be. Holding his sword out he stepped forward slowly approaching the stones. He leaned up against one of the larger ones. 'One...two...'

"Three!" He jumoed around the other side of the rock about to charge at the unknown thing. When he saw what was there he nearly fell backwards.

Blood...covered in blood that made a long, dripping path from where it had come. Now laying face down on the black stones. Hair caked in mud and his own blood. Laying lifeless, was Sephiroth.

'No...way...' Cloud thought dropping the Buster Blade in total surprise. 'Alive...he's alive? How?' Cloud thought rushing to his side turning the unconscious man on his back. He looked over the man, noting the deep wounds that dug into his flesh. Yes, it was Sephiroth, but how? And where had he gotten those wounds? Two years after a fight the wounds of a man guessed dead wouldn't still be open, would they? But, that wasn't what mattered.

'I have to get him back to the mansion.' Cloud thought picking the taller man up to carry him in his arms. 'I don't care what Vincent, or what anyone else will think. He needs my help.' Cloud thought running back down the mountain path as quickly as one could carrying someone.

"Cloud? Where did you-" Vincent said poking his head out of the kitchen, a dish in hand that he had been drying. The dish fell to the floor with a high pitched shattering noise when he saw who the blonde was carrying. Cloud carried him over to a dusty couch putting Sephiroth down on it.

"My God..." Vincent said stepping over the broken plate running to stand beside Cloud. "It, it can't be..."

"Do you have any bandages? Maybe a Cure Materia? His wounds are deep, they need to be cleaned soon or else they will get infected." Cloud said, working on undoing the clasps to Sephiroth's coat to be able to wrap them.

'So dream like...' Vincent thought then realized Cloud had asked him a question. "oh...yes, I think there's a first aid kit in that drawer over there." He went to the place he had pointed out finding the box and giving it to Cloud.

"I have a Cure Materia upstairs if it's still there." He ran from Cloud's side, up the stairs into one of the rooms on the left side of the stairs. He went to a dresser systematically pulling out each drawer. A few drawers down he discover a small black box in the back. He opened the box looking down at the Cure Materia inside. He picked it up. It glowed a faint green in his hand. He clenched his fist around the sphere heading downstairs again.

"Here," he handed the Materia to Cloud who had just finished cleaning the wounds. Cloud held it over Sephiroth's body the Materia reacting, sending green rays to trace over his wounds disappearing into them. Vincent then helped Cloud to bandage the wounds.

"Will you help me carry him upstairs?" Cloud asked turning to the raven haired man. Vincent knew the look in Cloud's eyes. A look of need, a cry for help. Yes, he knew it quite well.

'Love...I was right...that's how Cloud knew about Sephiroth's scars.' Vincent nodded, helping Cloud to lift Sephiroth off the couch and carry him up the stairs. After setting him down, Cloud rummaged through the kitchen trying to find a cloth and a bowl. Filling it with water he ran back upstairs, wetting the towel with the water then placing it on his forehead.

Vincent still stood next to the bed in his own little world. A lot had changed just from last night when Cloud appeared at his door. Now he was out in daylight, looking over at Cloud who fussed over a man he thought had been dead for years. The whole idea that Sephiroth had endured after Meteor and was now here, in Shinra Mansion, was hard to believe. Everything felt like part of a dream.

"I'm going downstairs alright Cloud?...Cloud?" The blonde didn't answer. He sat as if frozen by the cold of the Great Glacier, he was glued to Sephiroth's side.

"Hmmm?" Cloud said finally noticing it had been directed at him, "Oh, okay..." Cloud gave him a genuine smile. Vincent nodded, departing from the room in his usual silence.

'Alive...he's alive...' was all Cloud could think about. The thought in itself was exhilarating. Cloud put his head to the man's chest. A faint beating could be heard, faint but there all the same. 'I knew they were all wrong...I always believed you had a heart.'

Vincent came into the room a while later to find Cloud fast asleep on the General's chest. It was only nearly half past three in the afternoon yet Vincent could tell the blonde would most likely sleep all night too. Vincent smiled affectionately running his good hand through Cloud's unruly bangs. The blonde didn't move an inch so Vincent decided to go back downstairs.

He sat down on the couch, a huge cloud of dust coming up that made him cough and wheeze. 'I don't think Cloud will be leaving for awhile. Maybe I should clean up so we don't all die from this alarming amount of dust.' Vincent mused looking for a closet that might hold some type of broom and other cleaning materials.

'Looks like things are going to stay this way...you were right dear Lucrecia, your son was too strong to die.'

FLASHBACK: NIBELHEIM, 28 YEARS AGO

"No! NO! I don't wanna! Stop it! Make them go away! Don't go...don't go..." He screamed hanging onto Vincent's pant leg for dear life.

"Ssh...it's okay...remember; anything you can live through will only make you stronger," Vincent smiled pulling the tiny hands off of him squeezing them lightly.

"No...you're wrong...what if-what if you DON'T make it..."

"Everything will be alright. I'll see you again...You be good okay? Be strong, your mother would want that...Sephiroth," Vincent whispered letting himself be dragged away by scientists that locked the door once they had entered.

"My mother?" A tear fell down his cheek, turning into silent sobs as he looked at the daunting iron door that Vincent, his mentor, had disappeared behind.

"Why do you cry boy?" A voice came from behind him. Sephiroth turned quickly, looking up into cynical eyes hidden behind thick glasses.

"Who is Mama? Who is Papa?" He asked drying the tears from hi eyes.

"You want to know? Is this what you want?" Hojo smirked. Sephiroth feared the tall lanky man and took a step back.

"Yes! Please! Tell me." He was on the verge of tears again. Hojo advanced on him so Sephiroth took a step back until he finaly backed into the iron door.

"Fine then," Hojo said crouching to the three-year-old's level, "You have no true father but, your mother is Jenova..."

END FLASHBACK

Jenova...Jenova...Jenova...

Cloud woke up with a start, he could hear the voice fading away, echoing in the deafening silence. He'd thought those voices had stopped after Meteor. it surprised him that he would hear them now. He looked out the window surprised to see the stars in the sky.

The chilled air flooded in through the open window making the ancient, black curtains billow in the light breeze. 'It's dark out...when did it become night?' Cloud looked over at the window then at Sephiroth's still sleeping form. he brushed the long strands of silver hair lovingly then got up to stretch his cramped legs.

He walked over to the open window the cool wind piercing his skin like thousands of tiny needles. Shrugging, he climbed out of the window onto the roof. e sat on the top of it gazing into the night sky, the stars covering the sky with a blanket of light, the moon shedding dull light on the deserted city beneath him.

'I remember that voice in my head...it kept telling me: "your fate has already been preordained...give in...there is no stopping it...because you...are a puppet." But, if there's one thing that today has taught me, it's that fate isn't written in stone. Everything can change. I guess it doesn't matter if it's good or bad. Because, that too will eventually change.'

A/N: It's finished! That took absolute ages. I might end up starting another fic now. I was planning something with my new obsession Final Fantasy X. Since I figure that Auron left his fiancé to follow Braska and become his guardian I thought they'd be good together. Plus, Tidus goes so well with Yuna, Wakka is too religious to be gay so that leaves Auron. But, I won't write it for a while. This is my epic fic and forgive the chapters for being so slow to come out. I do know what I'm doing, I just have to put this one down ever so often. So expect lots of random stories along the way. If you get fed up with this, please don't leave me, just read some of my other mindless drivel. I'll leave comments on how this one's going.


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